AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers • Hacker News Board

AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#1

Post by dli282 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 12:54 PM UTC

AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers
aerofs.com

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#2

Post by tryp » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:09 PM UTC

This looks very interesting, but the it's a bit difficult to figure out what it actually is from the website. My impression is that it's like a more featureful take on Unison ("two-way rsync" iirc) with a central server to facilitate NAT traversal.

I suppose they probably haven't figured out their eventual pricing model, but I'd certainly pay a few bucks a month just for coordinating NAT traversal, papering over dynamic IPs and a web interface to set sync policy. For the most part, when my computers are sync'd peer-to-peer, I really don't need or want a copy of my data in the cloud -- my boxes _are_ the cloud. That means that their typical incremental cost per user would be practically zero.

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#3

Post by mgw » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:11 PM UTC

Beautiful homepage but there is an extra word in the paragraph "Unlimited Storage": "AeroFS lets you can sync all the data"

Also I don't fully understand the product from just the first page. Who is your target audience?

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#4

Post by pge » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:15 PM UTC

tryp wrote: post #2

This looks very interesting, but the it's a bit difficult to figure out what it actually is from the website. My impression is that it's like a more featureful take on Unison ("two-way rsync" iirc) with a central server to facilitate NAT traversal. I suppose they probably haven't figured out their eventual pricing model, but I'd certainly pay a few bucks a month just for coordinating NAT traversal, papering over dyna…

it looks like they ultimately will charge for cloud backup (just like dropbox). As you note, the incremental cost of user is zero, so they don't incur a cost by distributing lots of client applications (unlike dropbox, who incurs costs for free customers that use the <2GB plan). it will be interesting to see if dropbox responds. I like the model aerofs proposes. I'm a dropbox user but I use it entirely for the file syncing across three machines - I've only once used the web access to my files (i.e. only once used the cloud storage that aerofs would not provide). If AeroFS has the same usability as dropbox, I would switch to get more storage for free.

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#5

Post by tomjen3 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:17 PM UTC

tryp wrote: post #2

This looks very interesting, but the it's a bit difficult to figure out what it actually is from the website. My impression is that it's like a more featureful take on Unison ("two-way rsync" iirc) with a central server to facilitate NAT traversal. I suppose they probably haven't figured out their eventual pricing model, but I'd certainly pay a few bucks a month just for coordinating NAT traversal, papering over dyna…

If you select the learn more link, you can see that they have basically built a P2P distributed files storage system.

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#6

Post by samarudge » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:18 PM UTC

Theory is great, BUT if it isn't storing anything, then at least one device/computer with an up-to-date version of the folder must be online at all times. Is that correct? If not how does it sync without storing the data remotely?

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#7

Post by aquark » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:29 PM UTC

I've been using the beta for several months now and it has worked great across a variety of Windows and Mac machines.

For things like music and photos where I have 40+GB of accumulated bits it feels a better option than a straight cloud based system like DropBox or JungleDisk (which I also use, but for a smaller amount of stuff).

I have a number of machines with many GB of spare disk space, so rather than paying monthly storage fees for back up, I can just use this to replicate rarely changing content. Since machines on the local network sync at LAN speeds it is also very fast in the usual case.

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#8

Post by lean » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:29 PM UTC

So, it's Dropbox, but the Cloud part is optional?

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#9

Post by jbellis » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:29 PM UTC

samarudge wrote: post #6

Theory is great, BUT if it isn't storing anything, then at least one device/computer with an up-to-date version of the folder must be online at all times. Is that correct? If not how does it sync without storing the data remotely?

You sync only when both sides are up.

Re: AeroFS - File Sync Without Servers

#10

Post by pilif » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 1:30 PM UTC

I'm using this for about 6 months now. It works exactly like Dropbox, but it doesn't store any data on a central server, so I can use it even for my more sensitive files like my ssh private key.

I have a server at home on which AeroFS is running, so my data generally is available. And if my internet at home is down, usually there's another machine where it's running.

As it's syncing and keeping the local copy, the most current data will be on the machine I'm working on anyways.

The installation feels a bit "heavier" than dropbox which does a better job at staying out of my way, but the advantages of next to unlimited storage and no third-party server are huge for me.